Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Looks like there's still a few people around, so clan night at the usual time tonight. Braaaaiiiiiinnnsss.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Starting a little later tonight since my family is in town.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

Sorry for the late post. Crazy couple of days. We'll start with Hard Rain on Versus tonight.

Halo: Reach World Premier

A teaser cutscene was released at the Spike Video Game Awards last night and shows some footage of Halo: Reach which is due out next year. Everyone who bought ODST will be invited to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta, so you should have some interest at least. Sadly, the trailer looks to be just a cutscene with no in-game footage. But based on Bungie past precedence, this is all ostensibly rendered using the game engine itself, which looks pretty solid. Check it out here.

Finally, #1

It's taken several years, but I have finally surpassed FishBone10 in achievement points to claim the #1 spot in the clan. FishBone10 has 21,786 points from 86 games (253 pts/game). I now have 21,835 points from 43 games (508 pts/game). w00t!

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

We'll be starting on Dark Carnival and will continue on Hard Rain if there is time.

Xbox 360 Hardware Failures

Despite it supposedly being based on the newer and much more reliable "Falcon" platform, my latest Xbox 360 Elite (purchased 9/08) has failed with the Red Ring of Death (RRoD). This just a few weeks after OmniscientDeath's Xbox 360 Elite failed with the E74 error (previously blogged about here and here). If this happens to you, there a couple of options.

Option 1: Microsoft. Microsoft has extended the warranty for these two specific issues to 3 years from the date of purchase. You can go to the website and process a return painlessly and relatively quickly. It's free of charge, costs nothing upfront, and a new Xbox is generally delivered to your doorstep in 2-4 weeks.

Option 2: Best Buy Product Replacement Plan. Some of you may still have the "old" PRP in effect. Typically costs 15-20% of the purchase price up front and lasts for 2 years. You can choose at any time to exchange your Xbox 360 for a new one for any reason (broken or not), or receive original purchase price back. This has proven to be lucrative as Xboxes have dropped in price, meaning that you have been able to get new hardware every two years with the price drop typically covering the cost of a new PRP and then some. Service can be requested over the phone or in store.

Option 3: Best Buy Geek Squad Black Tie Protection (Gadgets and Gizmos). This has replaced the old PRP and has significant differences from the PRP for E74 and RRoD failures. Specifically for these two failures, Best Buy will not do anything over the phone, instead referring you directly to Microsoft...i.e., the plan is worthless. If you bring your Xbox into the store, they will verify the error and then handle it via "Rapid Exchange." In short, this means they send your Xbox off-site for service, and then a refurbished one is sent back to the store in a few weeks. This is the exact same service as from Microsoft, except that it costs money, and your console is shipped to a Best Buy store instead of to your house. If you manage to get four Rapid Exchanges in the two year service period, then they will replace your Xbox with a new one or give you "fair market value" in a gift card. i.e., you will not get purchase price back like with the old PRP, you will get whatever the Xbox is worth at the time.

For those of you that got conned into buying the new Gadgets and Gizmos service plan, I recommend not telling the customer service agent what the problem is if you have an E74 or RRoD problem. If you are more vague and say "it freezes" or "won't boot" instead, they more often than not will not try to reproduce it and will just give you a new Xbox to take home instead of the stupid Rapid Exchange process. You can keep your old hard drive, but they will keep the new hard drive themselves in that case.

Dark Carnival Next Week

We'll be starting with Dark Carnival in Versus mode for clan night next week if you want to know which maps you should be learning. If there is time (as there has been the last two weeks), we'll play a second round on Hard Rain.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 2.

We'll be starting on the Swamp Fever level for Versus fun.

Top Black Friday Deal for this Clan

For those of you haven't hit the retail centers yet, here's some incentive:

1. Left 4 Dead 2 at Best Buy for $34.99, in-store only remaining
   
2. Left 4 Dead 2 at Amazon.com for $39.99 with free shipping
   
3. Halo 3 ODST at Best Buy for $39.99 with free shipping

Gobble gobble.

Swamp Fever Next Week

For next week's clan night, we'll be playing Swamp Fever first. This gives you some time over the holiday to play and learn the maps.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. L4D2.

As posted yesterday, clan night tonight will start with Versus on the Dead Center campaign.

Dead Center This Week

For those of you wondering how to invest your time practicing, we'll be starting Versus on Dead Center in L4D2 for clan night this week. This is your 36 hour notification. Go learn the map.

ODST Road to Recon

If you've looked in your Xbox Live inbox lately, you may have noticed that I have finished the Road to Recon and unlocked the coveted Halo 3 Recon Armor. Far and away the hardest achievement in this quest is Vidmaster: Endure which requires completion of the Firefight 4th set on Heroic difficulty with four players. The recommended map for this achievement is Alpha Site due to its strategic geometry, but it's still really hard and takes over 2 hours to complete. The 4th set activates the Mythic and Famine skulls, in addition to almost every other skull available. That means enemies are extra hard to kill, they all have shields, and ammo is extremely scarce. Completing this requires precision team work and smart kills using ALL the tips outlined in previously in this blog. You must use the correct weaponry on each specific enemy, or you will waste ammo, run out, and be left defenseless. In my opinion, one of the leading indicators of how effective a player is in Firefight is their points per kill stat. This stat is higher for players who are streakier (Killing Spree), get harder kills (Brute Chieftain), get better kills (headshots), get kills on higher difficulties (Heroic) and with more skulls activated (Mythic). Here's some key stats for the active players in the clan. Useful for picking Firefight team mates and looking for ways to improve your own game. Leave a comment here if you're looking for folks to play with. OmniscientDeath and myself are up for gaming most nights of the week after 10pm.

Left 4 Dead 2 Weapon and Items Primer

Since most people will be jumping in cold for clan night tonight, here's a few tips from my midnight play testing to help you get started.

Pistols: L4D2 has the familiar single and dual pistols from the first game, but also introduces the single-wield only Magnum (pictured). Though the Magnum deals 120% more damage per round than the regular pistol and has longer range, my recommendation for pistol users is to still go with dual-wielded regular pistols. The overall damage per second of dual pistols is 54% higher than a single Magnum.

SMGs: There are tier-1 SMGs available in the game, the regular Uzi and the silenced MAC-10. They are very similar, but the silenced SMG is slightly superior. It can be spotted by the large silencer barrel on the front.

Assault Rifles: There are three ARs available in the game, the standard rifle (based on the M16), the "desert rifle" (based on the SCAR) and the AK-47. The M16 has the highest continuous rate of fire, the desert rifle fires in continuous 3-shot bursts, and the AK-47 deals out the most damage and damage per second. All three weapons are very effective, but the AK-47 is probably the best of the three in this game. It can be identified on the ground by its distinctive banana clip. Players should be careful when grabbing ARs, especially the M16, because the the HK41 sniper rifle looks very similar.

Shotguns: There are actually two tier 1 shotguns and two tier 2 shotguns in the game. The tier 1 shotguns come in standard pump action and "chrome" variants, both are nearly identical and just like the ones from L4D1. Tier 2 offers the familiar "auto shotgun" and a new "combat shotgun" based on the SPAS12. These can be identified by their pistol grip configurations, the combat shotgun found with no shoulder stock. Both tier 2 shotguns function nearly identically and both are good choices for shotgun users. They deal massive and fast damage but trade-off longish reload times. Easily the weapon of choice for Tanks.

Sniper guns: There are two sniper rifles available in L4D2, both function very similarly with the new "sniper rifle" holding more ammo. That's almost irrelevant though, because ammo is rarely a concern for snipers. Players should be careful when grabbing ARs, especially the M16, because the the HK41 sniper rifle looks very similar.

Melee weapons: There are several new melee weapons in L4D2, including the baseball bat, cricket bat, nightstick, crowbar, electric guitar, fireaxe, frying pan, katana, machete and tonfa. They function fairly similarly, with the guitar, fireaxe, frying pan and katana dealing the most damage per blow. Surprisingly, the frying pan deals the most damage over time since it has the fastest animation and re-fire speed. It can most often be found in kitchens. Note that a melee weapon replaces your pistol, so is not a great choice for pistol users, but is good for those who often run out of ammo because they prefer not to use the infinite ammo pistol.

Special weapons: There are at least two special weapons available in the chainsaw and the grenade launcher. Neither are reloadable, but both are *extremely* satisfying to use. I recommend enjoying the carnage that they can deal out. Achievements are available for both special weapons.

Items: L4D2 brings back pipe bombs, molotovs, health packs, and pain pills. It also adds Boomer Bile (which attracts the horde to the space or object hit), adrenaline (which makes you do run and perform actions faster) and defib units (which allow you to revive dead players). Team coordination and item choice becomes even more important now. Boomer Bile is a "thrown item" and goes in the same space as pipe bombs or molotovs. Adrenaline shares a space with pain pills, and defib units share a space with health packs. You can only care only item in each space.

Weapon upgrades: Finally, there are three weapon upgrades available to the survivors - Incendiary ammunition, explosive ammunition, and laser sight. They pretty much do what they say they do. I've only seen the laser sight in practice, which attaches to the gun you put it on - does not transfer between weapons if you pick up a new gun. They appear on the level in weapon crates like the image pictured on the left.

Clan night tonight. Left 4 Dead 2. 8pm PT.

Standard clan time. New clan game. Expect 4v4 Versus on The Parish. That's the campaign that has been available in the demo for a few weeks now, so those that did their homework will have an advantage on day 1. Braaaaaains.

As usual with L4D clan games, first 8 folks in get to play. If you join late, I will try to message or chat with you to give you some idea of when availability might open up. But if I ignore you, it is because we are totally full and unlikely to be adding anybody soon.

Left 4 Dead 2 Releases Tonight

The highly anticipated sequel the brain munching fun of last year's game drops at midnight tonight. My local Gamestop will be doing a midnight release, but according to Valve, some stores may be releasing it as early as 9pm PT. Check with your local dealer for details. I'll most likely be on for a bit playing around in the game to check it out if you'd like to join in.

Captured at BeerMonkeee's house

Explains why his headsets never seem to work. Click for huge. Reposted from Hawty McBloggy.

No clan night tonight

A bunch of people are out, and I have the flu. L4D2 drops in 7 days, leave a comment here if you have an opinion on what we should play next week.

Grifball Double EXP Weekend is Live

Grifball is back. Good time to get some achievements.